In a strange move this week, the Department of Telecom (DoT) has banned popular file sharing tool We Transfer in the country. The service is not accessible to people on select mobile network as well as Internet service providers (ISPs). According to a report, DoT ordered all ISPs to ban three specific website URLs, including WeTransfer.
WeTransfer is a popular tool which allows people to send heavy files using their email ID. This comes in handy when mail attachments for Gmail have crossed their permissable limit. With WeTransfer, users can send files up to 2GB without having to create an account for that. It is available in both free and paid versions.
The telecom authority hasn’t mentioned the speific reason for banning the platform, but it’s being considered the website was used to transfer illegal items, which is likely to have triggered the action. Banning of platform like WeTransfer doesn’t make a lot of sense, especially when the company has no clue about the kind of content that people are sharing. These are merely considered as carriers of the message/file, and putting them at fault, and banning them is an extreme action that could have been avoided.
With the lockdown in place, and many working from home, WeTransfer is a god-sent tool, and they will have to now look for other free alternatives to get their work done. This isn’t the first instance of a website being banned in the country. The DoT regularly shares list of websites/platforms with ISPs that are ordered to be banned.
People on Vodafone Idea, Reliance Jio and Airtel were not able to access WeTransfer. While at the time of writing, the platform didn’t open Airtel’s Broadband as well. But if you really need to access the platform, you’re best out is to use virtual private network (VPN) solutions, available for both mobile and desktop users.